


not an avocado

by Pawprinter



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: (kind of), Canon Compliant, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Pining, julie and alex left luke and reggie alone for TWO MINUTES, the rating is for coarse language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29147367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pawprinter/pseuds/Pawprinter
Summary: Luke never imagined his afterlife would include getting trapped in a claw machine, but... here he was.or: Julie and Alex leave Luke and Reggie alone in an arcade for two minutes.
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 104
Kudos: 381





	not an avocado

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this fic is. I don't know why it's so long. _I don't know._ It started out as a joke and now we're here so. enjoy.
> 
> warning for coarse language!

“I hate it here,” Reggie groaned. He kept glancing longingly towards the concession stand. “And when I say ‘here’ I mean ghost-ville. I miss popcorn.”

“On the bright side, we get into movies for free now,” Alex pointed out.

“That doesn’t make up for no popcorn, man. _Look at it.”_

“I— yeah. Yep. I’m looking.”

“I miss it so much.” Reggie sighed wistfully. “What do you think will happen to me if I eat it? You think I’ll die? Uh… Again?”

Alex gave him a long, unblinking look. “The fact that we have to add ‘again’ at the end of that sentence is concerning.”

Luke was hardly paying attention to them. His gaze was locked on the room in front of him, bouncing from machine to machine. The arcade in the movie theatre lobby was a ghost town — no pun intended — and he planned on using that to his advantage.

“Alright, boys.” Luke rolled up his sleeves and began to move towards a game machine only a few feet away. “Let’s get to work.”

Reggie was very clearly not about to get to work. He lagged behind to ogle the concession stand some more as Luke strolled away. Alex, on the other hand, chased after him.

“Uh… what are you doing? Julie told us to wait for her over there and—”

 _“And_ I’m not going far,” Luke assured him. He slung an arm around Alex’s shoulders and gestured to the claw machine they were walking towards. “When are we _ever_ in an empty arcade, dude? _Never!_ If I don’t go for it now, then—”

“Woah, slow down.” Alex pulled him to a stop. “Go for what?”

Luke glanced towards the claw machine and narrowed his eyes. “Uh. I think those are unicorns? Reg! Hey! Are those unicorns? Do unicorns usually have two horns? I thought—”

“That _really_ didn’t answer my question.”

Luke was already moving past Alex though. He didn’t have a lot of time to spare before Julie returned from the restroom and—

“I want to get something for Julie.”

 _Because that’s what people do when you’re into someone and at an arcade,_ he wanted to add, but didn’t.

He pressed his face against the glass to peer into the claw machine. It was filled to the midline with stuffed unicorns. Or… bicorns? What was a unicorn with two horns called? 

“You remember back before the hot dogs? Someone _always_ won a stuffed animal for their date at arcades. Well… _not a date,_ because Julie isn’t my date, and…” Luke cleared his throat and glanced over his shoulder. Reggie and Alex gave each other knowing looks. “Whatever. Doesn’t matter. I just thought that since we’re never able to go to an arcade _together…”_

There was a short pause.

“Dark, dude.”

“It’s realistic.” Luke turned back to the machine, pointedly avoiding this conversation. It didn’t even matter that much. He chewed his lip. “Would she want a blue one? Or… or a pink one?”

“What about a red one?” Reggie offered helpfully. “I hear red’s a _very_ popular colour.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it is, buddy.” Luke tapped the glass impatiently. “I’m going for blue since they don’t have purple. Blues good, right? She likes blue? She—” He glanced over his shoulder again, looking in the direction Julie disappeared in. “She’s going to be back any second and I— Alex! Alex, can you go distract her, man?”

He blinked. “Uh. What?”

“Yeah, yeah, just go distract her for like five minutes, dude. _Please._ I’ll hurry, but I want it to be a surprise, you know? I’d do it for you! If you, I donno, wanted to get something for Willie, I would _happily_ be the distraction and—”

Alex held his hands up and took a few steps back. “Woah, slow down there. _Willie?_ We’re bringing up Willie now? I’ll have you know that he has nothing to do with this. Okay? _And_ he— we— I mean, we’re just friends! We’re not like, you know...”

“Yeah. We know.” Reggie glanced at Luke and failed to hide his shit-eating grin. “You and Willie are friends, just like Luke and Julie are friends. _We all know.”_

“Hey!”

“Dude.”

Reggie didn’t look the least bit sorry.

They didn’t have time for this.

“Just— please, Alex? I’ll let you borrow my sweaters for a month.”

“Your sweaters don’t have _sleeves,_ Luke. Why would I want to— you know what?” Alex paused and surrendered. “Fine. It’s fine. I’m going. I’ll be your distraction. Just _hurry,_ okay?”

Luke planned on doing just that.

He turned back to the claw machine and continued to study the animals inside. He _still_ was set on getting her a purple unicorn and was desperate to find one, but—

Reggie slid up beside Luke. He nudged his side.

“Hey,” he whispered. “You know what I heard?”

“Hm?”

“Girls like really gnarly things.”

Luke peered at Reggie out of the corner of his eye. “...what did you just say?”

“Yeah, man, I swear. I heard Kayla and Carrie talking about this tiny avocado and—”

 _“Kayla and Carrie?”_ Luke pulled a face. “Like… the Kayla and Carrie from Julie’s school? _That_ Kayla and Carrie?”

“Not the point. The point is, they found a tiny avocado at the grocery store. They were scared it wasn’t going to be picked because it was so small, so they bought it, and it’s their new favourite thing. See?” He spread his hands, as if that explained everything. “Unicorns are _old_ news. Abandoned pieces of fruit are in.”

Luke stared at Reggie for a long moment.

“You’re shitting me, right?” Luke blinked. “Are you— huh. You’re not kidding, are you? You’re serious? What about Julie’s butterflies and glitter? Unicorns are close to that, right? They’re all in the same sort of bubble?”

“Yeah, but… abandoned fruit.” Reggie shrugged. “Do what you want, man, but I’m telling ya. That’s the new thing.”

Luke rubbed his forehead. “2020 is so confusing.” He glanced at Reggie to gauge his reaction. “Fruit? As in, like… wait. Are avocados fruits? Or vegetables? They seem like they should be a vegetable.”

“Alex told me anything with seeds are fruits. I was confused too. Don’t get me started on tomatoes.”

Luke let out a groan. He didn’t have time to debate fruits and vegetables — he barely had enough time to win Julie a stuffed animal as it was!

This was ridiculous, right? She’d like anything he got her? _Right?_

And yet… Luke didn’t want her to just _like_ it. He wanted to make her happy. He wanted to see her expression light up with joy, and he wanted to see her eyes widen with surprise, and he wanted to see how her smile sparked what felt like life in his chest.

_And he wanted to know that he did that._

_That she was smiling because of him._

Luke glanced around the arcade. Maybe the unicorn idea wasn’t the way to go. Maybe Reggie was right. He sure _sounded_ confident with his suggestion and that was something, wasn’t it?

His eyes locked onto a flashing machine across the aisle.

“Perfect.”

Luke moved towards the second claw machine across from them. The game was filled with a variety of stuffed animals, not just unicorns this time; bears, dogs, cats, reptiles—

_Reptiles._

He zeroed in on the purple reptile on top.

Not just any boring reptile. _It was a freaking dinosaur._

He leaned against the glass to get a better look. “It’s not gnarly fruit,” he mumbled, “but dinosaurs are pretty badass. Julie likes dinosaurs, right?”

“Oh, dude, she loves them. She has, like, three dinosaur shirts in her closet.” Reggie leaned against the glass. “Ooo, they have cute ones! Look — a hamster! And that other one looks like Bowser from Mario Kart!”

Luke didn’t look at any of the other animals. He knew; the purple dinosaur was the one.

“I’m going for it,” he announced.

“Which?”

“The purple one. It’ll match her shirt.”

Reggie turned to Luke. Luke could see his wary expression out of the corner of his eye. “Uh… quick question. What if someone walks by and sees the claw moving by itself? Wouldn’t that be suspicious? You know I’m all for haunting places, but Julie said no using our ghost powers outside of the garage, and she can be kinda scary at times, so—”

Luke laughed and bumped their shoulders together. “The claw isn’t going to be moving by itself because I’m not going to be playing by the rules. Watch and learn, Reginald.”

With that, he poofed inside the machine.

It was more terrifying than he originally anticipated.

As soon as he was on the other side of the glass, he began to sink through the toys. It reminded him of the foam pit from trampoline parks. His legs were stuck beneath him and he kept getting sucked downward, as if he was in quicksand.

“Luke!” Reggie exclaimed. His face pressed against the glass. His eyes were wide with shock. “You’re _in_ a claw machine right now! Do you know how _epic_ this looks!? Scoot over, I’m coming in!”

“NO! No. There’s no room for you in here. Sorry, man.”

It was true; there was hardly any room for _him_ in the machine. As it was, he had to duck his head to avoid knocking it against the claw. His knees were tucked against his chest and, if he wanted to, he could touch both glass walls without stretching to his full arm span.

Luckily, he had stopped sinking at that point and was now waist-deep in stuffed animals. He really wished he paid attention in science class because he didn’t know the names of any of the dinosaurs around him.

He managed to poof in right on top of the purple dinosaur he had his eye on and struggled to get it out from under his leg. Once it was rescued and in his hands, he took a better look at it.

He frowned.

“I donno,” he called to Reggie. “I don’t know if Julie’s going to like this one. It’s, like… missing stuffing in its tail or something.”

“Totally. It sucks. Go for the long neck one!” Reggie’s voice was distorted by the glass. 

_He sounded so far away._

Luke tried not to think about how he was trapped in a plastic cube surrounded by so many beady eyes, all just... _watching_ him. 

He was pretty sure he’d seen a horror movie start like this.

He shook himself and got to work. The purple dinosaur was abandoned in the massive pile behind his back and he went digging for Reggie’s pick. When he had the dinosaur in his hands, he had to admit — it was pretty cute. The tag in the ear said Brachiosaurus and that sounded vaguely familiar to Luke.

(Yeah, sue him, he couldn’t remember the name of a dinosaur. Dinosaur names were the least of his worries, considering he was currently a ghost musician and in love with a girl that was very much not a ghost.)

“Another question for you,” Reggie said. “Ever think about their tongues?”

“What? Why would I think about their tongues? Why do _you_ think about their tongues?”

Reggie ignored him. “Like… where does the tongue start? It’s like giraffes, man. How long are their tongues? Are they just… extremely long? Because of their long necks? Or…?”

Luke blinked at Reggie. He could tell he was deadly serious.

“Dude.”

“It’s a genuine question I have!”

“I… Yeah. I know. That doesn’t make it better.”

Luke shifted in preparation to poof out as Reggie continued to talk. “What about scarves? Like. Where would they wear them? Up around their jaw or by their shoulders?”

He opened his mouth to reply because, _obviously,_ dinosaurs would wear scarves around the necks, but—

Luke paused.

“...you might be onto something.”

“See!”

With the dinosaur tucked under his arm, he poofed back out of the claw machine, coming to stand beside Reggie again, but—

He looked down at his empty hands. 

Then to Reggie. 

Then back to his hands.

“What happened?” Luke glanced to the claw machine. There, on the top of the pile, was the dinosaur he selected for Julie. He frowned. “Hey — wait…”

Luke blew a stray strand of hair out of his eyes and tried to figure out what the heck happened to the dinosaur. It was strange. One second, it was in his hands, and the next…

“I’m going back in.” He squared his shoulders with determination and poofed back into the claw machine.

Luke repeated the process. He landed in the pile of stuffed animals. Grabbed the dinosaur. Poofed back out, and—

 _Again,_ the dinosaur stayed behind the glass and Luke was left standing empty handed.

“Uh…” Reggie glanced sideways at him. “You dropped it.”

“Thanks, man, I appreciate it.” Luke glanced over his shoulder and was relieved when he didn’t spot neither Alex nor Julie. He still had time to figure this out. “Okay. New plan.”

 _“New_ plan?” Reggie echoed. “Was there ever _a_ plan?”

“I can’t poof with the dinosaur,” he continued. “Maybe because it’s not connected to my soul? I don’t know. It’s not able to travel with me though.”

“Ooo. Try going through the glass! Just like… phase through it.”

Reggie’s suggestion was better than nothing. Luke poofed back into the claw machine and tried to push the stuffed animal through the glass. 

_It didn’t work._

While his fingers and arms passed through easily, the dinosaur bonked against the glass. It looked sad, laying in the pile of stuffed animals, with it’s little black button eyes staring up at him… but maybe that was Luke just projecting.

“It’s not working,” he complained. 

He locked eyes with Reggie.

A beat passed.

Reggie studied the claw machine. With each passing second, he seemed to grow paler and paler. His throat bobbed as he swallowed and he nodded vigorously. “Okay. It’s cool, dude. Don’t think about the fact you’re sitting in a claw machine right now. Don’t think about it. It’s fine. You’re fine.”

_Luke was most definitely thinking about it._

It was easy to start panicking, especially when Reggie looked like he was already there.

They locked eyes, both wide and stricken with fear.

“Oh god. _Oh god._ I’m in a claw machine.” He sucked in deep breath after deep breath. His gaze darted around. “Oh my god. I’m— I’m in a claw machine, and I can’t get this dinosaur out, and—”

“Just poof out! Skip the dinosaur, who cares! Julie doesn’t _need_ a dinosaur—”

 _“Yes she does!”_ Luke squeaked. “I— _C’mon._ Help me.”

Luke pressed the dinosaur to the inside of the glass and _pushed._ He was focusing so hard at keeping his hands solid that he felt the other discarded animals go through his legs and stomach. Reggie partially phased through the glass — just enough to grab hold of the front legs (paws?) of the dinosaur and pull.

After a moment of struggle, Reggie pulled away huffing. Luke fell backwards, crushing several teddy bears under his back.

(May they rest in peace, unlike him.)

He let out an aggravated sound. “Come on!” he snapped. “Why isn’t this working!?”

“Maybe it’s karma for not playing by the rules,” Reggie offered. Luke gave him a dirty look. “Hey, I’m just saying!”

He was surrounded by stuffed animals, some of which he _swore_ were squeaking from his full weight being on them. A metal claw dangled precariously above his head. The glass between him and reality felt thick. And—

_HE WAS A GHOST._

_Why was this not working?_

“The universe owes me,” Luke complained, his voice muffled from his arms draped over his face. “I was murdered by a hot dog. The universe can _at least_ let me give Jules a stuffed animal.”

Luke reopened his eyes and looked up at the roof of the claw machine.

This was it.

_He was going to be stuck in here forever._

Sure, he could just poof out, but he’d rather be stuck in here forever than admit to himself and anyone else that he couldn’t figure out how to bust a stuffed animal out of this glass prison.

“I’m going to spend my days smelling popcorn, and running away from the claw, and watching children lick the glass, and—”

“No!” Reggie insisted. He pressed his face to the glass. “You got this, man! You can do this. Just… just climb through the chute!”

Luke sat up.

He glanced at the chute leading out of the claw machine.

That wasn’t a half-bad idea.

Except—

“I’m not going to fit, dude. That thing’s built for stuffed animals.”

“You can do it,” Reggie encouraged. “Just think small. Be small. _You are small.”_

With those inspirational words ringing in his ears, Luke nodded.

“Yeah,” he breathed. He tilted his head and examined the chute. If he went in at an angle… “Yeah, you know what! I can fit if I want to!”

“Definitely!”

“I can just leave like any lifer would if they were in my position”

“Yeah! Wait, no. Lifers wouldn’t be inside a claw machine, Luke, and—”

“I’ll free myself _and_ Bronchitis before we both go extinct again!”

“Uh… isn’t bronchitis what you had the winter of ‘94?”

Luke didn’t really care.

He was busting himself _and_ Julie’s dinosaur out of here.

The chute was decently sized. It had to be big enough to fit the giant squid that was sitting in the corner of the machine, and that was _almost_ the size of his shoulders. The only problem was that he was somehow going to have to fit out the little door without snapping his back like a glowstick.

It was fine.

He’d be fine.

Luke swung his legs over the edge of the chute and dropped down. Even with both of his feet on the bottom of the claw machine, the chute itself only measured up to his elbows.

“Okay,” Luke said slowly. “I’m just going to…”

He tried to bend over and quickly realized that wasn’t going to work.

He straightened.

When he tried again the second time, he approached at a slightly different angle.

It still was nowhere close to working. It was too narrow of a shaft to be able to fit his whole body into it _and_ make it out the door.

Luke had been called many things over the years — determined was one of them.

(So was stubborn, but he didn’t really want to talk about that.)

He kept trying.

On the third attempt, instead of bending at the waist, he bent his knees and wiggled himself down. It was a tight squeeze; he had to press the green dinosaur to his chest and tuck his elbows into his sides to have any hope of making it. While Luke got further than before, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing because—

Shit.

“Uh.” Luke wiggled his shoulders to confirm— “Yeah. I’m stuck.”

_“You’re what?”_

“I’m stuck!” Luke tried to stretch his legs towards the exit of the chute, but his legs only bent in one direction — a fact he _just_ learned to be really inconvenient. “Uhhh, yeah! I’m, like, stuck stuck.”

“Don’t panic. Don’t panic!” Reggie’s face was pressed against the glass again, now separated from Luke’s by mere inches. “I’m going to try to push you free, okay!? Just— just hang in there!”

“Wait! Reggie—”

_It was too late._

Before Reggie could finish speaking, he had poofed into the claw machine, coming to sit in the exact spot Luke had been sitting in moments before. If he thought it was cramped in the glass box before, it was almost unbearable now. 

Luke groaned. “Dude, you need to be on guard! What if Alex comes back and—”

“Oh. Alex is back.” Luke craned his neck to peer through the glass. Sure enough, he caught a glimpse of a pink hoodie. “I— What— You— I leave you two alone for _two minutes_ and—”

“To be fair, you _did_ leave us alone.”

“Yeah! Exactly! For two minutes!”

Reggie chose that moment to try and shove Luke down the chute. He let out a yelp and glared at him. “Dude! My shoulders don’t bend that way for a reason!”

“Well, maybe they should. Do you wanna get outta here or not?” Reggie gave him an exasperated look and adjusted his position, coming to kneel much closer to the chute. He shoved the purple dinosaur out of the way. “Just, ugh, Luke—”

“Stop! Wait!”

“Luke, just _cooperate—”_ Luke tried to bite Reggie’s hand as he came closer. “Uh, rude!”

Luke turned to Alex, who was simply watching the chaos unfold, his expression slack with shock. “Alex! Hey, man, you’re supposed to be keeping Julie away! You have _one job!”_

Reggie shoved Luke’s shoulder, taking extra precaution to avoid his mouth. “Yeah,” he muttered, “the easy job.”

Alex let out an exasperated sound. “She’s _peeing,_ guys, what am I supposed to do? Lock her in the room? I was just standing in the hallway doing _nothing,_ and I heard you two dorks from across the building, so—”

“Good idea! Pull the trick we did at Bobby’s and not let her open the door.”

“Oh yeah,” Alex said sarcastically, “that would go well.” He watched them struggle for a beat before speaking again. “Uhh, okay, you know you could just—” He paused. “You know what? Yeah. You two got this. You’re doing _great._ I’m just— I’m going to go wait for Julie in the hallway, okay? You two… _fantastic work.”_

“Thanks, buddy!” Luke called. 

He was too distracted by Reggie trying to wedge him into another dimension to really focus on any of his words. All he knew was that Alex was handling the Julie side of things, and that _hopefully_ meant he’d have a few extra minutes to figure out how to become Stuart Little and escape the chute.

After one particularly hard shove from Reggie, Luke let out another yelp and scowled. “Okay! This isn’t working! You’re going to break my legs. Or my arms. Or _me.”_ He wiggled upwards, trying to dislodge himself from the chute. “Help me up!”

Getting out of the chute and back into the claw machine was a whole other struggle. 

Together, they managed to get Luke free. He flew face-first into Reggie’s stomach from the momentum. The Bowser look-alike stabbed him in the eye.

“Got you, dude,” Reggie assured him breathlessly. He patted Luke on the head before poofing out of the claw machine. He brushed out his clothes and watched Luke carefully. “You know, maybe you should just give up. Julie doesn’t have to know and—”

“No. _No,_ I’m not giving up.” Luke rolled onto his back and lifted the dinosaur up to examine it. After being crushed down the chute with him, the tail was bent at an odd angle, but it still looked cute. “I just— I want to give her something, you know? And I… you know back when we were kids? Do you remember?”

“Of course, I remember.”

“Do you… _ugh._ Do you remember watching all those couples at the arcade? All the dates we saw — some of which we accidentally crashed because we were little shits? I’d always think… _that was going to be me one day,_ you know? Where I’d win the person I was crushing on one of those cheap toys, and we’d take turns knocking down those weird bowling pin clown things, and argue about claw machine strategies, and… I might not be able to do any of that anymore, but I can _at least_ give her a cheap claw machine toy. This is as close as I can get to normal.”

_He didn’t mean to get so deep._

And yet—

Reggie didn’t look like he minded. He leaned against the side of the claw machine, his lip tugged into a half-smile.

“I understand. I do. I get it.”

 _Good,_ because he wasn’t too sure he understood it himself.

“And usually I’m not one for giving up — you know that, man, but… this isn’t looking too hot. You can’t fit through the chute and you already tried teleporting. It’s not working.”

Luke turned his gaze back to the dinosaur and pouted. “I mean… I can’t just leave Bronchitis here now. We’re bonded. We have shared trauma.” 

“Circling back to— Oh. Hold on. Kid alert.”

Luke sprang into a sitting position, his eyes wildly scanning the arcade, and—

Sure enough.

A child was walking towards the claw machine. Luke’s gaze zeroed in on his dinosaur shirt and his matching dinosaur pants.

“Oh no,” Luke hissed. “You don’t think…. He’s not coming here is he? Is he—”

The universe hated him.

If that fact wasn’t made explicitly clear by being murdered by _hot dogs_ the night they were supposed to have their biggest performance, then _this—_

_This._

This made it explicitly clear.

The kid was approaching the claw machine.

_The claw machine he was currently haunting._

Luke pressed against the glass, a newfound panic striking his unbeating heart.

“Reggie! Reggie, get me out!”

Reggie was on the other side of the glass, also pressed to it. “Just poof out! Leave the dinosaur behind and—”

“I would literally rather die than leave Bronchitis behind!” Luke’s gaze darted to the kid, who was already inserting a dollar. Luke let out a little yelp and ducked as the claw swung inches away from his head. “Oh god. Dude. I think— I think I’m running out of oxygen. I’m feelin’ dizzy.”

“Breathe,” Reggie coached. “You’re fine. It’s fine. You’re— _wait,_ dude, you don’t even need to breathe. You’re already dead.” 

Luke wasn’t listening. 

He was too busy dodging the metal claw coming for him.

_If someone had asked him what he imagined the afterlife to be like, he would not have said this._

This, as in; getting stuck in a claw machine trying to win your lifer crush a dinosaur because you’re desperately in love with her and unable to tell her.

“Poof out!” Reggie instructed. “Poof out, or I’m poofing back in and— JULIE! JULIE, HELP!”

It was a miracle.

Julie was approaching the claw machine, her eyes wide and jaw dropped. Alex stood at her side, looking wildly more amused than she did. Alex must’ve whispered something to Julie because her eyes went wide for a split second before she doubled over, gasping from laughter.

“This is not the time for laughing!” Luke complained. He was tempted to scramble to the other side of the glass box to avoid the claw, but he didn’t want to accidentally terrify the child by making the stuffed animals seemingly move on their own. Technically, the claw wouldn’t hurt him, but he knew he’d never live it down if he was impaled by a _claw at an arcade._ “Julie, help! I am stuck!!”

“I told him to poof out, but he’s _Luke_ and won’t listen to me and—”

_“Reggie—”_

“It’s the truth! You’re kinda stubborn and—”

“Oh? Am I—”

“Yeah, and you almost got stuck in the chute!”

“But I didn’t!”

“Luke, just let it go and—”

“But I want Bronchitis! He’s a freakin’ dinosaur! It’s so cute and _you know why I want it!_ I’m not leaving here until—”

_“Luke—”_

“Just drop it down the chute.”

The conversation came to a screeching halt.

Luke turned to Alex, who stood off to the side, still looking widely amused.

He took a long moment to collect himself.

_“... what did you just say?”_

Alex was terrible at hiding his amusement. “Drop the dinosaur down the chute, poof out, and then grab it from out here. Easy.”

There was another long pause.

It was long enough for the kid to give up trying to win a dinosaur from the claw machine. He walked off, leaving the group alone to stare at each other.

_Shit._

Luke hadn’t thought of that.

Without looking away from Alex and without saying another word, Luke dropped the dinosaur down the chute. There was a faint thud as it hit the bottom of the claw machine. There was another awkward beat where nobody _breathed._

Julie was the one to break it.

She walked the remaining distance to the claw machine and pulled out her prize. Sure, the dinosaur was a little busted up from the amount of time Luke nearly squashed it’s stuffing out, but—

Luke’s chest warmed at the picture of her holding the stuffed animal.

“Smooth,” Alex dryly complimented him. Luke knew it was all in jest though and he teasingly stuck his tongue out in return.

“You know, you could’ve said something earlier,” Luke pointed out. “You _saw_ Reggie trying to shove me down the chute, man.”

“You also told me I had one job. _And_ it was pretty freaking hilarious to watch you two struggle.”

“I hate you,” Reggie muttered darkly. “I hope you know that. I hate you.”

“Yeah. _Okay.”_

Luke’s forehead thudded against the glass pane, drawing Julie’s attention away from the dinosaur in her hands and back to him.

“It’s cute,” she said simply. She tucked it under her arm, her fingers lingering on its side. “It’ll look good in the garage. I’m thinking… your couch?”

“It’s for you.”

Her eyebrows rose. Her lips parted the slightest bit. It was hard to read her expression beyond initial surprise.

“I, uh…” Luke’s eyes flicked in Alex and Reggie’s direction, both of which were inching away from the claw machine to give them privacy — or as much privacy one could get while at an arcade. “I wanted to get you something from me, you know? It’s not like we get a lot of opportunities outside of the house — which is fine, by the way — but… I donno. I just wanted to get you something from the arcade. Specifically from the uh… the arcade. For reasons.” 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alex and Reggie both making wild gestures with their hands. 

_What?_

‘Keep going!’ Alex mouthed very obviously.

Oh!

“I, uh…” Luke rubbed the back of his neck and refocused on Julie. “I kinda grew up in arcades. _God,_ when I was a kid, I _lived_ in these places and spent _all_ of my allowance playing games, and… It was cute, you know, watching couples— uh… people — _friends_ — win each other stuffed animals.” He bit the inside of his cheek. _That was a close one._ “I guess I wanted to get you something that reminded me of that.”

_(Something that reminded me of what used to be normal.)_

_(Something that made me feel like all of this — being a ghost, playing in a ghost band, loving a non-ghost girl — was normal.)_

His stomach was filled with fuzzies that he was confident had nothing to do with the fuzzy stuffed animals around him. 

“Luke,” Julie breathed. Her rings clanked on the glass when she pressed her palm flush against it. Without hesitating, Luke returned the touch through the glass. It took all of his focus to keep his hand from phasing through to grab her hand. “Come here. This is… It’s a hard conversation to have when you’re sitting in a claw machine.”

He didn’t have to be asked twice.

He poofed out of the machine, appearing inches away from Julie. She gave him a lopsided smile and grabbed his hand. It was easier — holding her hand — than it was trying to stay solid against the glass. She was a part of him. Holding her hand just felt _right._

“I sometimes forget you were a kid in the 80s,” Julie commented. Her expression softened. “I... thank you, Luke. This is really sweet. I love it.”

“Of course, Julie. Anything for you.”

She glanced away. He noted the quirk of her lips and dimples of her cheeks. It made him feel like he was flying and falling all at once.

“Next time,” she said, turning back to him, “don’t climb in there. Just be a normal boyfriend and _play_ the claw game to win me a prize. Normal people don’t just poof into claw machines.”

_Luke could barely speak._

“I— uh. Boyfriend?”

Julie’s eyes snapped to his. She stumbled over her words. “Uh. Yeah. With a space between the two words. You know; a _boy-space-friend._ You’re a boy, who I consider a friend. Boy friend.”

Luke definitely felt like he was going to phase through the floor because—

“Right,” he said, his voice wavering. “Boy-space-friend. Just like you’re my girl-space-friend.”

“Girl-space-friend. That’s me.” 

How could he tell her that he didn’t want her just to be a girl (space) friend?

How could he tell her that he wanted her to be his _girlfriend?_

Without giving Luke a second to figure out how to make his mouth work again, Julie pulled the dinosaur from under her arm and began to study it intently. It was as if she was purposefully avoiding his gaze.

 _And yet,_ Luke couldn’t take his eyes off her, not even when her hair became untucked from behind her ear and curtained across her face.

Maybe the universe didn’t hate Luke as much as he thought. If it did, he knew he wouldn’t have this _wonderful, amazing, soul-brightening_ girl in his life. 

She brushed her hair out of her face and lifted the dinosaur. “A Brachiosaurus,” she said. “A solid choice.”

 _“See!”_ Reggie shouted. “I told you it wasn’t a Bronchitis!”

Alex groaned. “A _what!?_ Dude…”

Julie didn’t give a response. She doubled over from the force of her laughter, the dinosaur clutched to her chest and her eyes squeezed shut from joy. 

So what, he got trapped in a claw machine for a bit. 

It was worth it just to see Julie this happy.

_It was worth it._

**Author's Note:**

> shout out to Ryn for encouraging this mess. I blame her for the chaos.
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!
> 
> Paw  
> Find me on [Tumblr!](https://pawprinterfanfic.tumblr.com/)  
> EDIT: Thank you to Ryn for this hilarious doodle for this fic!!!!! [You can find it on Tumblr!](https://thesunwillart.tumblr.com/post/642244041063497728/pawprinterfanfic-pawprinterfanfic-not-an-avocado)  
> 


End file.
